p.211 #5 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
I knew I mentioned it some place but I am not sure whether I did here. Anyway, the population of the burrowing owls at my favorite spot had declined dramatically in 2020 from the year before. Only a few left and they were not that active, too, for whatever reasons. I could capture only a few in-flight images and not a single image of their famous mid-air bug catching sequence using their claw. I hope that somehow the population can recover this year...
Here is just a single image of an owl about to make a left turn. BTW, the structure in the background is an airport, or the beginning of the runway and those circular light areas are runway lights...
p.211 #6 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
Hello.
I'm looking at these great images and I would just like to ask a question. I'm planing to buy Sony 200-600 lens for my A7R III camera to start some birds and ZOO photography. Does anyone use polarizing filter for this? I love the polarizer effect with my landscape and nature photography and I was thinking about that glare from foliage, water and feathers ... But on the other hand it would cost me some light. I use this filter for landscape and nature photos but I always use tripod, so no problems here most of the time. Shooting birds will mostly be handheld I think and thus would need all the light possible.
So ... CPL filter for this lens for birds and animals ... yes/no?
p.211 #7 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
Tomaz32 wrote:
Hello.
I'm looking at these great images and I would just like to ask a question. I'm planing to buy Sony 200-600 lens for my A7R III camera to start some birds and ZOO photography. Does anyone use polarizing filter for this? I love the polarizer effect with my landscape and nature photography and I was thinking about that glare from foliage, water and feathers ... But on the other hand it would cost me some light. I use this filter for landscape and nature photos but I always use tripod, so no problems here most of the time. Shooting birds will mostly be handheld I think and thus would need all the light possible.
So ... CPL filter for this lens for birds and animals ... yes/no?...Show more →
For birds in the wild or wildlife in general sense, there is no need for any polarizer filter. It is more about capturing fleeting moments where you have to react fast and take what the nature offers. You may try using a polarizer at the zoo however and see how the results look like.
p.211 #9 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
Tomaz32 wrote:
Hello.
I'm looking at these great images and I would just like to ask a question. I'm planing to buy Sony 200-600 lens for my A7R III camera to start some birds and ZOO photography. Does anyone use polarizing filter for this? I love the polarizer effect with my landscape and nature photography and I was thinking about that glare from foliage, water and feathers ... But on the other hand it would cost me some light. I use this filter for landscape and nature photos but I always use tripod, so no problems here most of the time. Shooting birds will mostly be handheld I think and thus would need all the light possible.
So ... CPL filter for this lens for birds and animals ... yes/no?...Show more →
I'll use a CP at times to reduce the glare off the water when shooting the whale migration off the northern California coast.
p.211 #10 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this lens and shooting birds. Massive thanks to @arbitrage for steering me in the right direction on programming my camera for this kind of shooting! These were shot with an a7rIV, the 200-600 and the 1.4X teleconverter.
p.211 #12 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
Those look fantastic! Great job! Confirming that my setup (same as yours minus the TC) is good enough for a once-in-a-while wildlife shooter.
stuartv wrote:
I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this lens and shooting birds. Massive thanks to @arbitrage@ for steering me in the right direction on programming my camera for this kind of shooting! These were shot with an a7rIV, the 200-600 and the 1.4X teleconverter.
p.211 #13 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
Hodie wrote:
Those look fantastic! Great job! Confirming that my setup (same as yours minus the TC) is good enough for a once-in-a-while wildlife shooter.
Thank you so much!
I feel like my jury is still out. I need to take my rig out and put it on a tripod and shoot some static subjects, to really confirm to myself that the lens/AF is spot-on. My shots from this past weekend still seem like they're not coming out of the camera as sharp as they should.
That said, as I was editing them, I did actually have a small number that were sharp enough that I couldn't tell any difference with running the Topaz Sharpen AI tool (so I canceled out of Sharpen AI and did the rest of my work on those without putting through Sharpen). That is encouraging. But, still most of them did need some sharpening. I'm really not sure what I should be expecting, but I feel like I should have the majority NOT needing sharpening versus the majority that do need it.
THAT said, all these were shot handheld, and on a day that was heavily overcast, so definitely not great light. These two were from the same outing, and they were even captured at ISO 12800. For all the talk of the a7rIV and High ISO performance, I am pretty pleased at how these came out. They are not exactly stunning. But, for an rIV at ISO 12800...
p.211 #17 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
The temps finally got above zero Fahrenheit.
My wife and I found a barred owl in this hollowed out tree three years ago.
Every time we went there, we'd check the tree to see if the barred owl returned.
We had to have checked at least 100 times.
Tonight was the night that the owl, or a owl, was in the same spot.
p.211 #19 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread
davev wrote:
The temps finally got above zero Fahrenheit.
My wife and I found a barred owl in this hollowed out tree three years ago.
Every time we went there, we'd check the tree to see if the barred owl returned.
We had to have checked at least 100 times.
Tonight was the night that the owl, or a owl, was in the same spot.